KANTU
Real Name: Kantu
Identity/Class: Human;
citizen of Wakanda
Occupation: Drug dealer
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Ramonda;
formerly Black Panther (T'Challa)
Enemies: Black Panther (T'Challa), Erik Killmonger (N'Jadaka), Lightning Lancers (Zambada, others), Solomon Prey, Taku
Known Relatives: Karota (mother), M'Jumbak (father, deceased)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Golden City in Wakanda;
formerly a farm in Wakanda
First Appearance: Jungle Action II#9 (May, 1974)
Powers/Abilities: Kantu was an angry teenage boy, who sold drugs and was addicted to them at the same time. He was not much of a fighter, but driven by anger was capable of using violence.
Height: Unrevealed (5'6"; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (140 lbs.; by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
History:
(Jungle Action II#17 (fb) - BTS) - Kantu was nine years old and he
scaled Mvule Trees.
(Jungle Action II#9) - Kantu was saved from a rhinoceros by Black Panther. Monica Lynne consoled the scared boy until his parents arrived. Kantu's father was thankful, but his mother wanted nothing to do with the outsider.
(Jungle Action II#9 - BTS) - That night Kantu went to sleep before his father returned from a walk, which was unusual. His mother reported Kantu's father missing.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#1 (fb)) - Kantu attended his father's funeral.
(Jungle Action II#17 (fb) - BTS) - Kantu stopped scaling Mvule Trees after his father's death. He was still nine years old.
(Jungle Action II#12) - Kantu became depressed after his father was killed by Baron Macabre's "zombies." He didn't care when a kraal ran away, but Monica Lynne, who offered her help to Karota, stopped the animal. Karota told her to leave Kantu alone, but Monica just wanted to help them with their grief.
(Jungle Action II#15) - Kantu was still depressed sitting in front of his hut. Monica and W'Kabi tried to console him.
(Jungle Action II#16) - Black Panther ran into Kantu sitting at the beach. Kantu told Black Panther that he hated and wanted to kill Killmonger even though he had never even seen him because he was responsible for his father's death. Black Panther watched the sunrise with Kantu.
(Jungle Action II#17 (fb)) - Kantu was still nine years old when he was woken up at midnight by the passage of Killmonger's army riding on dinosaurs to Central Wakanda. He ran to sound the alarm, but was always behind them. He saw the cemetery where his father was buried and found it desecrated and destroyed like everything else the army passed through. When he finally arrived in the Golden City the attack was already under way.
(Jungle Action II#17) - Kantu sat down at Warrior Falls and was sad. He soon heard Black Panther fighting Killmonger on top of Warrior Falls.
(Jungle Action II#17 / Black Panther: Panther's Prey#1 (fb)) - Killmonger overpowered Black Panther and pressed him over his head to break his back and watch him die when Kantu ran towards Killmonger and tackled him from behind. Killmonger fell down Warrior Falls to his death.
(Jungle Action II#17) - Kantu helped Black Panther, who had was holding on to the edge of the cliff, up and they walked away from Warrior Falls together. Kantu still felt sad even after killing Killmonger.
(Jungle Action II#18) - Kantu and his mother watched the clean-up work at the Royal Palace.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#1 (fb)) - Kantu was praised as a hero and honored at banquets where people asked him how it felt. He liked the attention, but felt like a sham.
A statue was built in his honor. He knew the sculptor, who captured him as a hero. In the beginning he often walked past the spot where the statue was standing to look at it in awe and confusion.
Kantu regularly visited his father's grave (apparently the cemetery was fixed).
Kantu eventually lost interest in the statue like the people lost interest in his heroic deed. He rarely thought about his father anymore.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#2 (fb) - BTS) - Kantu became a drug dealer for one of Solomon Prey's underlings. He sold the drugs in the Royal Palace in Wakanda.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#1 (fb) - BTS) - Kantu became addicted to the drugs he was supposed to sell.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#2 (fb) - BTS) - Kantu didn't pay back the money he owed to Prey, who sent his Lightning Lancers after him.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#1) - One day Kantu noticed his statue again and looked at the state of it. It had dried bird droppings on it and some new ones. He remembered the time people considered him a hero. He walked away and was watched from the sky by Zambada, the leader of the Lightning Lancers. Zambada and two more Lightning Lancers swooped down on their Pteranodons from the sky to scare Kantu, who got scratched by one of the flying dinosaurs and tumbled into a statue. The statue fell over and Kantu began to bleed from the scratches on his chest. Black Panther came to Kantu's aid and told him to take cover. The Lightning Lancers soon fled, but Black Panther wanted to know from Kantu if he knew who his attackers were and why they targeted him. Kantu replied that he didn't know, but Black Panther didn't believe him. Kantu became angry because Black Panther accused him to be lying and left.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#1 - BTS) - T'Challa told W'Kabi that he was worried about Kantu, who hinted at a painful secret.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#1) - Kantu was smoking crack under a tree when he was confronted by Black Panther, who took the drugs from him and asked where Kantu got the drugs from and how they got into Wakanda anyway. Kantu gave him no answers and became angry while Black Panther offered him help, but Kantu slapped him and then told him that he didn't need his help because he had already received help from someone else, which led to his drug problem.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#2 (fb) - BTS) - Kantu was arrested and taken to the detention level in the Royal Palace where he could not be found by his attackers. He was interrogated for two weeks by Black Panther and Taku.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#2 - BTS) - Ramonda visited Kantu to talk with him. After visiting him she wanted to talk to T'Challa about him, but he wanted to talk to Kantu first.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#2) - Black Panther tried again to learn from Kantu how he got involved with Solomon Prey's drug trade, but he got no answers from Kantu. Instead Kantu lashed out at the Black Panther for keeping him imprisoned in this luxurious prison with videotapes to keep him docile. He didn't believe the Black Panther understood him and mocked every attempt the Black Panther made to show that he felt empathic to Kantu's problems. In the end the Black Panther left the room disappointed.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#2 - BTS) - Ramonda asked T'Challa to release Kantu, but he explained to her that he couldn't because he wanted to prevent him from destroying himself. Ramonda made it clear that T'Challa couldn't prevent this either way.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#2) - Kantu accidentally overdosed on pills he found in the bathroom and washed them down with soda. He died alone in his cell of a heart seizure.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#2 - BTS) - His death was discovered.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#2) - Three hours later T'Challa, Dr. Tambak and Ramonda were standing next to Kantu's corpse. T'Challa blamed himself, but Tambak told him that it was a combination of legal drugs and prolonged drug abuse that had weakened Kantu's heart that caused his death. T'Challa wanted to avenge Kantu's death by taking down Solomon Prey.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#3 (fb)) - T'Challa, Mendinao and Dr. Tambak showed Kantu's corpse to his mother Karota. The doctors tried to explain to Karota how her son died. She said little, but wished that nobody knew that her son died because of illegal drugs. Black Panther respected her wish to not reveal the involvement of drugs. Black Panther, W'Kabi, Karota and others attended Kantu's funeral. He was buried next to his father.
Comments: Created by Don McGregor, Gil Kane & Klaus Janson.
Killmonger's fall from Warrior Falls was also seen in Iron Man Annual I#5 (November, 1982), but Kantu was actually not shown.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Kantu has no known connection:
(Jungle Action II#9 (fb) - BTS) - M'Jumbak and Karota were farmers working in the fields.
(Jungle Action II#9) - M'Jumbak and Karota ran towards Black Panther and Monica Lynne to get their son. Karota looked at Monica Lynne with disdain and while her husband thanked the Black Panther and felt honored because his king remembered his name, Karota only felt ashamed for the king because he hung out with an outworlder like Monica Lynne.
Karota later went to the Royal Palace to tell T'Challa that her husband had gone missing. She had followed his tracks to the burial site that was haunted by Baron Macabre.
(Jungle Action II#10) - Karota returned to the Royal Palace only to learn from T'Challa that her husband was dead. He tried his best to comfort her and promised her to avenge his death.
(Jungle Action II#12) - Karota was unable to stop a kraal from escaping the pen, but Monica Lynne caught it. Karota didn't want her help, but Monica still offered it to her and her son. Karota was afraid that Monica wanted to take her son away from her, but Monica assured her that she only wanted to help her in her time of grief. Karota began to cry and Monica stayed with her.
(Jungle Action II#13) - Because Monica realized that Karota wasn't eating since her husband's death, she took Karota to the medical center in Central Wakanda. Karota ran away scared after Mendinao gave her a shot of vitamins to help with her malnutrition.
(Jungle Action II#15) - Monica Lynne and Taku visited Karota at her farm. Karota was making dinner and was angered by Monica's non-stop chatter. Taku asked Karota to be nice to Monica.
(Jungle Action II#18) - Karota and her son watched the clean-up work at the Royal Palace after the attack of Killmonger and his dinosaurs.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#1 (fb)) - Karota attended the funeral of M'Jumbak with T'Challa at her side.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#3 (fb)) - Karota was taken to the morgue by T'Challa, Mendinao and Dr. Tambak. She was shown the corpse of her son and the doctors tried to explain to her how he died. She said little and only wished that nobody knew that her son's death was the result of his drug addiction.
The Black Panther was at Karota's side at the funeral of Kantu, who was buried next to his father.
--Jungle Action II#9 ([Jungle Action II#9 (fb)], Jungle Action II#9-10, 12-13, 15, 18, Black Panther: Panther's Prey#1 (fb), Black Panther: Panther's Prey#3
(Jungle Action II#9 (fb) - BTS) - M'Jumbak and Karota were farmers working in the fields.
(Jungle Action II#9) - M'Jumbak and Karota ran towards Black Panther and Monica Lynne to get their son. M'Jumbak thanked Black Panther for saving his son from a rhinoceros. Black Panther didn't know that he was near the land of M'Jumbak, who felt honored that his king remembered his name. His wife only felt ashamed for T'Challa because he was hanging out with an outworlder like Monica Lynne.
Lost in thoughts M'Jumbak later strolled past a small burial site. He watched in shock as Baron Macabre rose from the ground and was then choked to death by him.
Karota informed T'Challa that the cemetery was haunted by Baron Macabre. T'Challa found M'Jumbak's corpse at the burial site and then had to fight Baron Macabre and his soldiers.
(Jungle Action II#10) - After informing Karota of her husband's death, the Black Panther returned to the cemetery to pick up M'Jumbak's corpse, but he was once again attacked. After defeating them he promised M'Jumbak's corpse to return for him.
(Black Panther: Panther's Prey#1 (fb)) - M'Jumbak's funeral was attended by his family and friends. His son regularly visited his grave until he didn't.
--Jungle Action II#9 ([Jungle Action II#9 (fb)], Jungle Action II#9-10, Black Panther: Panther's Prey#1 (fb)
images (without ads)
Black Panther: Panther's Prey#2, p30 (main)
Jungle Action II#17, p4, pan6 (head shot)
Jungle Action II#17, p19, pan1 (running)
Jungle Action II#13, p11, pan2 (Karota)
Jungle Action II#9, p6, pan4 (M'Jumbak)
Appearances:
Jungle Action II#9 (May, 1974) - Don McGregor (writer), Gil Kane
(pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Jungle Action II#10 (July, 1974) - Don McGregor (writer), Billy Graham
(pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Jungle Action II#12 (November, 1974) - Don McGregor (writer), Billy
Graham (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Jungle Action II#13 (January, 1975) - Don McGregor (writer), Billy
Graham (pencils), Craig Russell (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Jungle Action II#15 (May, 1975) - Don McGregor (writer), Billy Graham
(pencils), Dan Green (inks), Len Wein (editor)
Jungle Action II#16 (July, 1975) - Don McGregor (writer), Billy Graham
(artist), Len Wein (editor)
Jungle Action II#17 (September, 1975) - Don McGregor (writer), Billy
Graham (artist), Len Wein (editor)
Jungle Action II#18 (November, 1975) - Don McGregor (writer), Billy
Graham (pencils), Bob McLeod (inks), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Black Panther: Panther's Prey#1-3 (1991) - Don McGregor (writer), Dwayne
Turner (artist), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
First Posted: 09/02/2026
Last updated: 10/27/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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